Stumpf was one of the earliest students of Brentano and always remained quite close to his early teachings. He wrote his dissertation under the supervision of Lotze at the University of Göttingen (1868) and also did his habilitation there (1870). Later in his life he became more and more interested in empirical methods in experimental psychology and effectively became one of the pioneers in this discipline. He held a teaching position in Göttingen, then became a professor at Würzburg and later at Prague, Halle, Munich and finally Berlin, where he founded the Berlin School of experimental psychology, which was later to become the base of operation for Gestalt psychology. Stumpf famously quarreled with Wilhelm Wundt, then the most prominent figure in German experimental psychology (and by extension, the world), over the psychology of audio tones. Stumpf was a good friend and frequent correspondent with the American psychologist and philosopher William James, who also had issues with Wundt.